Journal of Applied Microscopy. 501 



minded. The number and the notes are often of more value than the specimen. 

 Certainly the objects alone are ordinarily worthless. If there are several parts 

 to the particular object in hand, one can easily write 1st, 2d, 3d, etc., after the 

 diamond number. To the writer the system seems a convenient and useful one, 

 but we must always remember the personal equation entering into such matters. 

 The very tool which suits one man's hands may not have the " hang " for the 

 next. This date number has a decided advantage in that notes and references 

 are more readily looked up, for one can generally remember the year when 

 certain sections were prepared, photomicrographs taken, specimens obtained, 

 or notes written, and can turn promptly to the year, month, and almost to the 

 day, thus expeditiously looking up the matter or the object sought. 



One Way of Keeping Notes. — Keeping notes is also a very necessary pre- 

 liminary to other laboratory work. The student is urged to look with suspicion 

 upon any system of keeping notes which does not admit of indefinite growth and 

 expansion, which does not admit of additions and subtractions, and which cannot 

 be readily arranged with reference to each subject in hand. Members of the 



Fig. 2 — A sketch showing a portable card catalogue note-book, made of extra heavy tin, 



japanned, and fitted with light leather sling. Size about 



5^x5^x3 K inches. 



U. S. Geological Survey, whose note-books have grown into a small library, assert 

 with candor that it would be easier to go into the field and do the work over 

 than to find the notes respecting field work done a few years back. The note- 

 book is too often a jumble of unrelated parts, and when you have many such 

 you wish you had none. Your freight bill would be smaller and your house 

 room larger, and your general perturbation less, at any rate. It is very trying to 

 know that you have notes, yet really haven't them, because they are not available. 

 A remedy is to use punched history paper, or seminar paper with wide margins. 

 Or, still better, especially for short condensed notes, is the card catalogue system. 

 There is no need to describe this system, for every beginner must meet with 

 constant reference to it in this journal, where you must see it figured as well as 

 described. The paper slips or cards of uniform size, and of different weights 

 and colors, are to be had in every city, or can be ordered, together with guide- 

 cards, from any library bureau. The convenience of this system is that one can 

 always have a few slips in his memorandum book, and as soon as a note is 



